Day 3

Today, we started off the day by visiting the kids in the school we are working at. The kids sang an anthem called "Santa Rosa", which showed off the kids' pride for their country.  They were very entertaining. Next, we played a couple very competitive games of soccer with the kids. We split into different teams and competed against each other until we had a winner.  I have to admit that the kids were very skilled in soccer tricks. After the kids left for the day, we started our first day working on the school. My group worked on re-painting the playground for the kids. Our goal was to make the kids more enthusiastic about coming to school each day. Taylor, Jasmine and I came up with the theme "rainbow" for the playground. So, we painted different colored strips on each of the poles supporting the monkey bars.
Moving on, in about mid afternoon, we got on a bus to go to an organic farm. The tour that we took was very inspirational. Our instructor, Daniel, taught us about the horrible pollution in the world, especially in the US.  Daniel was the leader and owner of the farm.  He lives and works on this farm along with his wife and kids everyday.  He is very persistent in his work, which had led his with much success.  We also learned about the growing of different fruits and natural resources. One thing that the farm grew that stood out to me was the vanilla bean. Did you know that to fully grow a vanilla bean pod it takes six full years?
Anyway, after the tour, everybody loaded into the bus to take us back to the Chilamate Eco Retreat.  After some rest and shower time, we went to the dining room/kitchen to eat some dinner.  You may have heard that the most famous dish in Costa Rica is "pollo con arroz", which means chicken with rice. That dish is one of the things that we have had for dinner the past few nights.
After a great and healthy dinner, we finished the day with an activity named True Colors. True Colors is about your personality and brain type. You may have heard the term "right brained" or "left brained". Being right brained means that you are more of a creative person, and like visual, hands on types of activities. However, a left brained person means that you are more conceptual and strategic in making decisions.  With that knowledge, we went further into the subject.  I can say that I learned some new things about myself tonight.
-Katie
p.s. Hey mom and dad!